he engines and closed the
water-tight doors. Captain Smith was on the bridge a moment later,
summoning all on board to put on life preservers and ordering the
life-boats lowered.

"The first boats had more male passengers, as the men were the first
to reach the deck. When the rush of frightened men and women and
crying children to the decks began, the 'women first' rule was rigidly
enforced.

"Officers drew revolvers, but in most cases there was no use for them.
Revolver shots heard shortly before the Titanic went down caused many
rumors, one that Captain Smith had shot himself, another that First
Officer Murdock had ended his life, but members of the crew discredit
these rumors.

"Captain Smith was last seen on the bridge just before the ship sank,
leaping only after the decks had been washed away.

"What became of the men with the life-preservers was a question asked by
many since the disaster. Many of these with life-preservers were seen to
go down despite the preservers, and dead bodies floated on the surface
as the boats moved away.

"Facts which I have established by inquiries on the Carpathia, as
positively as they could be established in view of the silence of the
few surviving officers, are:

"That the Titanic's officers knew, several hours before the crash, of
the possible nearness of the icebergs.

"That the Titanic's speed, nearly 23 knots an hour, was not slackened.

"That the number of life-boats on the Titanic was insufficient to
accommodate more than one-third of the passengers, to say nothing of the
crew. Most members of the crew say there were sixteen life-boats and two
collapsibles; none say there were more than twenty boats in all. The 700
escaped filled most of the sixteen life-boats and the one collapsible
which got away, to the limit of their capacity.

"Had the ship struck the iceberg head on at whatever

{illust. caption = MRS. GEORGE D. WIDENER

Mrs. Widener was saved,....}

{illust. caption = George D. WIDENER

Who with his son....}

{illust. caption = Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. WILLIAM T.
STEAD

The great English writer, who was a passenger on board the ill-fated
White Star Line Steamer Titanic.}

speed and with whatever resulting shock, the bulkhead system of
water-tight compartments would probably have saved the vessel. As one
man expressed it, it was the impossible that happened when, with a shock
unbelievably mild, the ship's side was torn for a